1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition used in the production of an electronic device such as semiconductor device or a liquid crystal device or thermal head or the process of producing a semiconductor such as IC or the production of a circuit board such as thermal head and further in other photo-fabrication processes, and a resist film and a pattern forming method each using the composition. More specifically, the present invention relates to an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition suitable when using an irradiation source having a wavelength of 250 nm or less, such as far ultraviolet ray and electron beam, and a resist film and a pattern forming method each using the composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chemical amplification resist composition forms a pattern on a substrate by producing an acid in the exposed area upon irradiation with radiation such as far ultraviolet light and through a reaction using the acid as a catalyst, changing the developer solubility of the area irradiated with an actinic radiation and that of the non-irradiated area.
In the case of using a KrF excimer laser as the exposure light source, a resin having small absorption in the wavelength region of 248 nm and having a basic skeleton of poly(hydroxystyrene) is predominantly used as the main component, and this is an excellent system capable of forming a good pattern with high sensitivity and high resolution, compared with the conventional naphthoquinone-diazide/novolak resin system.
On the other hand, in the case where a light source of emitting light at a shorter wavelength, for example, an ArF excimer laser (193 nm), is used as the exposure light source, a satisfactory pattern cannot be formed even by the above-described chemical amplification system, because the compound having an aromatic group substantially has large absorption in the region of 193 nm.
In order to solve this problem, various resist compositions for use with an ArF excimer laser, containing an alicyclic hydrocarbon structure, have been developed. However, in view of overall performance as a resist, it is actually very difficult to find out an appropriate combination of a resin, a photoacid generator, additives, a solvent and the like used.
JP-A-2003-207895 (the term “JP-A” as used herein means an “unexamined published Japanese patent application”) discloses that when a compound capable of generating an aromatic sulfonic acid substituted with at least one fluorine atom and/or a group having at least one fluorine atom upon irradiation with an actinic ray or radiation and a specific resin are used in combination, an excellent positive photosensitive composition ensuring a small iso/dense bias and a wide sidelobe margin is obtained.
JP-A-2006-306856 describes a fluorine-containing acid generator containing a lactone structure for obtaining good resolution and pattern profile.
However, in the generation where an immersion process is applied and a finer pattern is formed, the above-described related arts are not always sufficient, and it is demanded to satisfy high level performances in terms of all of line width roughness (LWR) and others and with the miniaturization of the pattern size, take measures to reduce a very small defect of several nm or less (referred to as a blob defect or the like).